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POPSOn Suicide Bombers have argued the altruistic motivations on this for a long time:::humiliation factor is why the us military always loses the moral aspect of warfare
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POPSMillitary Vets Don't Need to be Told They're a Burden to Society
For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living." The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family." When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel? One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender .
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POPSElitists' Rules for The Working Class Interesting photo, no matter which way you break on that. Touching interaction between Crowley and Gates (who finally climbs down a little in his latest take* on this whole business, acknowledging he had something to learn about the cops. I’d add he still needs to acknowledge new lessons about race relations. * 'An Accident of Time and Place' "...I thank God that I live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day, and, more than ever, I’ve come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf." The Root By: Henry Louis Gates Jr. http://www.theroot.com/views/accident-time-and-place Obama looks like he’s ready to get these two and the awkward situation they represent out of his house. Either that or it shows us what we already knew. Crowley is a gentleman. Obama, as amply demonstrated by assorted bizarre international incidents, is not.
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POPSObama's Revealing Body Language (updated and expanded)) As some AT commentators point out, this picture becomes a metaphor for ObamaCare. The elderly are left in the back, with only the kindness of the Crowleys of the world, the stand up guys, to depend on. The government has other priorities. One of the major subtexts of the health care debate involves the public's fear of indifferent, powerful bureaucrats ruling their lives. It is one thing to wait in line at the DMV to find out which other line you should wait in, in order to begin the process of waiting for multiple bureaucrats to go through the motions of processing your request. I have spent entire afternoons going through this process. But when we get to health care, waiting often means enduring pain and dysfunction longer than necessary, sometimes a worsening of the condition, and sometimes death. That's why I think this image will have genuine resonance. It captures something that older Americans in particular can relate to.
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POPSThe American Way of War
(3) Explain the invasion to the American public in simple moral terms suitable for middle-school children at an evangelical summer camp: We are bombing cities to bring the gift of democracy and American values, or to defeat some vague but frightening evil, perhaps lurking under the bed, or to get rid of a bad dictator no longer of service to us, or to bring freedom and prosperity to any survivors. (This doesn’t work in Europe, which is honestly imperialistic.) The public can then feel a sense of unappreciated virtue when the primitives resist. Sententious moralism should always trump reason. (4) A misunderstanding of military reality helps. Besides, comprehension would only lead to depression. As Napoleon said, or may have, in war the moral is to the material as three is to one, which implies that unpleasant facts should be played down in favor of cultivating a cheerful attitude. Most especially, it should not be noted that a few tens of thousands of determined, probably genetically
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POPSChanging Our Minds This is a really terrific article about the benefits of reading fiction. The Greater Good website is full of wonderfully inspiring reads. Worth the browse!
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POPSWhat Would Thoreau Have Made of the Current Debate? Not all doctors are equally good physicians, and not all sick persons are equally good patients. If we persevere in our quixotic quest for a fetishized medical equality we will sacrifice personal freedom as its price. We will become the voluntary slaves of a "compassionate" government that will provide the same low quality health care to everyone. Henry David Thoreau famously remarked, "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." Thoreau feared a single, unarmed man approaching him with such a passion in his heart. Too many people now embrace the coercive apparatus of the modern state professing the same design. Universal Health Care Isn't Worth Our Freedom Dr. Szasz is emeritus professor of psychiatry at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. He is author of "The Myth of Mental Illness," among other books
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POPSMaking Light: Folksongs are your friends
More: Avoid navigable waterways. Don’t let yourself be talked into going down by the wild rippling water, the wan water, the salt sea shore, the strand, the lowlands low, the Burning Thames, and any area where the grass grows green on the banks of some pool. Cliffs overlooking navigable waterways aren’t safe either. Stay away from the greenwood side, too. If you look at the calendar and discover it’s May, stay home. If you are an unmarried lady and have sex, you will get pregnant. No good will come of it. If you are physically unable to get pregnant due to being male, the girl you had sex with will get pregnant. No good will come of it. You’ll either kill her, or she’ll kill herself, or her husband/brother/father/uncle/cousin will kill you both. In any case her Doleful Ghost will make sure everyone finds out. You will either get hanged, kill yourself, or be carried off bodily by Satan. Your last words will begin “Come all ye.” If your name is Janet, change it.
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POPSThe evolutionary roots of morality What makes some of us saints and some of us sinners? Newsweek has an article on human good and evil that trots out the usual Milgram-fuelled moral pondering before morphing into a fascinating piece on the psychology of compassion
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POPSThe Interrogation Scandal ~ The Disclosure of the Memos The Constitution is never suspended. It anticipates war and peace, insurrection and domestic tranquility, and prescribes adjustments for different conditions. Free speech is guaranteed but treason is proscribed. Privacy is guaranteed but searches are authorized. Liberty is guaranteed but imprisonment is permitted. Life is guaranteed but the death penalty is permitted. Which brings us to two final points that are especially crucial in wartime (and it is worth remembering that enhanced interrogation techniques were adopted after an unprecedented domestic attack, during a defensive war authorized by Congress). First, war is just, and proportional, only because of evils so pronounced that they have triggered the legal and moral obligation of government officials to use the powers necessary to quell the evil — to protect the lives those officials are sworn to defend.
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POPSPriority for injured soldiers? I will believe this when I see it. Seven years ago I was the sole voice screaming at the inequities of council decisions made in Blackpool. The Council had issued an edict which placed former servicemen in 17th place on page two of their discussion paper on housing. When I raised this issue with the Ex Servicemen’s Association and the Royal Marines Association I was told I was out of order and out of line. Now sense has prevailed and these worthless bodies realised that it is the serving man (and woman) who is always the priority and not their self indulgent selves, I would like to say I told you. The facts are that the majority of former service associations are not worth a fart in moral and ethical standards- in my opinion- says it all. When political association takes priority over the camaraderie of old pals it shows the depths that society has sunk. Well done Help for Heroes. The tragedy is that you have to exist at all.
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POPSMoney and Morality To pretend that our nation's forefathers fought and died for the right to create progressive tax rates, set a maximum wage, or for politicians to harass honest individuals simply for personal success is to lie, and there's no denying it.
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POPStwo moralistic stories - look AFTER at the comment NOW___ ENOUGH OF THAT BULLSHIT The donkey came back in a rage, and bit that farmer who was going to bury him alive. The gash from the bite wound got infected and the farmer lay in agony for one week before his heart gave out and he died. THE MORAL of this story is---When you do something wrong. Don't try to cover your ASS, cause' it may just come back and bite you... Gerald J Tate
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POPSIsrael investigating soldier testimony of war crimes against Palestinians
Another veteran described an officer who ordered machine-gunners to fire at an elderly woman In the testimony, the soldiers admitted that excessive force was used because the lives of Palestinian civilians were valued far less than those of the soldiers. When asked about the revelations, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that he believed the stories described were an exception, and insisted the Israeli Defense Forces are the "most moral army in the world" Danny Zamir, the chairman of the preparatory school that hosted the seminar, said that the soldiers' testimony showed that the disregard for Palestinian civilians was not an exception. "The new release testimonies raise a grave suspicion that the rules of engagement in the infantry violated the basic principles of the international laws of war," he said. "If the alleged rules of engagement are true, both the officers who gave the order and the soldiers who obeyed them might have committed war crimes."
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POPSShould the Treasury's intervention be more targeted? Here's an interesting take on the Geithner plan for shoring up the banks' financial situation. The article makes a compelling argument as to why the plan is not really a great deal for would-be investors and definitely a loosing proposition for taxpayers. With my training in business management and finance I can see the validity of the issue raised here. In fact, I'd be in greater agreement with Nouriel Roubini's recent position that the banking system should be nationalized; with the understanding of course that only the payments and credit system for businesses and individuals would come under the government's fold. All this makes me realize how wise the Belgian legislation is when it mandates that each company's and citizen's debt be centralized and monitored so as to remain within reasonable limits with respect to that entity's revenues.
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POPS"The Israel Lobby" by Mearsheimer & Walt Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical. Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing that given to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976, and is the largest recipient in total since World War Two, to the tune of well over $140 billion (in 2004 dollars). Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli. This largesse is especially striking since Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per-capita income roughly equal to that of South Korea or Spain.
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POPSThey're Winning Terrorism expert Steve Emerson says there’s no hope of victory in the war on terrorism until we call it what it really is.
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